October 17, 2012 12:59pm EDTOctober 17, 2012 12:18pm EDTThere’s reason to believe the Lions’ emergence as a top-10 defense five games into the season may be for real, and it starts with a renewed commitment to stopping the run.

Dave Birkett

Published on Oct. 17, 2012

Oct. 17, 2012

ALLEN PARK, Mich.—There’s reason to believe the Lions’ emergence as a top-10 defense five games into the season may be for real, and it starts with a renewed commitment to stopping the run.

The Lions have faced a quintet of the league’s best running backs so far (Adrian Peterson, LeSean McCoy, Frank Gore, Stephen Jackson and Chris Johnson) and seem to have conquered their biggest failing from last year—allowing big plays.

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So far this year, the Lions have given up just two runs of 20-plus yards, one on a quarterback scramble on a broken pass play and another on an end around, and Peterson is the only back to top 90 yards rushing.

The Lions are tackling better as a team—their linebackers missed just one tackle last week against the Eagles—and the few tackles they have missed have been cleaned up by improved pursuit. Outside linebacker DeAndre Levy has emerged as one of the defense’s best players.

From a scoring standpoint, the Lions rank near the bottom of the league at 27.4 points per game, but that number’s skewed by six return touchdowns allowed (two punts, two kickoffs, an interception and fumble).

Things won’t get easier for the run defense going forward. Matt Forte and the Bears are up this week, and the Lions still have Marshawn Lynch, Arian Foster and Maurice Jones-Drew (plus Peterson and Forte again) on the schedule. But the Lions are better equipped to handle those challenges than at any time under Jim Schwartz.